


The Killer in the Mirror

by caimani



Series: 31 Days of Halloween [8]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Human, Gen, Haunted Houses, Horror, M/M, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-07-28 23:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16251986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: What could go wrong with treasure hunting at the old abandoned mansion at the edge of town?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Day 9: Mirrors  
> this was requested by Anat!! (the final part will be written and posted soon!)

The old Byrd mansion a few miles outside of town has been empty for a hundred years. Maybe. Probably. It’s old and falling apart and that happens when it’s been abandoned for a long time, right? Well, all Patton knows is that it’s creepy as hell to look at and everyone seems to be of the opinion that it’s best to leave it alone.

Everyone except Roman. He’s convinced there’s something amazing hidden inside. He told them, “And even if there’s no treasures hidden in there, there’s at least an adventure waiting!” So he got it in his mind to go and not even Virgil could convince him to change his mind. And since Virgil couldn’t just let him charge in by himself, he talked Patton and Logan into coming along too.

Which brings them to here. To now. To Patton holding Logan’s hand as they stand outside the old Byrd mansion. To Roman vibrating with excitement next to Virgil clutching a backpack full of flashlights and batteries and a first aid kid and emergency snacks and bottled water.

“It feels bigger up close,” Patton says nervously, looking up at the smashed-out windows on the second floor.

“I’ve got no service out here,” Virgil grumbles, stabbing at the screen of his phone. 

Logan checks his phone too. “Mine as well,” he says.

“That’s fine, we don’t need cell phone service!” Roman says. 

“What if something happens?” Virgil says. “Like one of us falls and we need to call for the EMTs, or there’s a serial killer hiding inside and we need to call the police, or the car doesn’t work when we get out and we need to call a tow truck?”

“The car was working fine coming here,” Logan pointed out. “And it’s highly unlikely there’s anybody living here. And--”

“We’ll be fine!” Roman says, throwing an arm around Virgil’s shoulders. “Just stick close to each other and we’ll be safe.”

Patton is still frozen in place, staring up at the mansion. “There’s probably… bugs in there,” he says, his voice coming out more timid than he wants. “And spiders.”

Logan smiles kindly. He leans close to whisper, “Let Roman walk first. He’ll break all the spider webs for you.”

Patton manages a shaky smile. “Thanks,” he says.

“Alright, enough waiting!” Roman says. “It’s almost sunset! Time to explore!” 

“Wait one second,” Virgil says. He reaches into his backpack, takes out four flashlights, and hands them out to each of them. “Here. Watch where you’re walking.”

Patton takes his flashlight and switches it on. The beam of light is bright and wide. Okay, that makes him feel a little better. He points the light at the ground and walks after Roman and Virgil, who are already leading the way up the crumbling grass-covered stone steps up to the house. 

Roman pushes hard on the door. The hinges are almost completely rusted shut, but then there’s a jerk and it suddenly opens all the way. Roman stumbles a bit, and Virgil immediately rushes forward to grab him. 

They walk inside. The dark entrance hall is huge as a cavern, and it seems to swallow up the light of their flashlights. Patton edges closer to Logan, keeping his flashlight pointed at the ground in front of him instead of pointing it around like Logan and Roman are doing.

“Look at this place!” Roman says. “I wonder where all these doors lead to!”

“Well, it was built in eighteen thirty-one,” Logan says. “Considering the style of the architecture, I would expect to find a library, a drawing room, a sitting room, a formal dining room, perhaps a morning room…”

“And a billiard room, and a conservatory, and a lounge, right?” Roman says.

“What?” Logan sputters.

“Come on, _Clue_?”

Logan groans. Patton giggles. Okay, he’s sort of enjoying this now. He lets go of Logan’s hand and walks over to one of the doors along the hall. With some effort, he forces it open. He points his flashlight inside. 

“Oh, look,” Patton says. “This must have been the dining room.” The others walk past him into the room, pointing their flashlights at the sparse contents. 

There’s a long table in the center of the room, split in half but still very recognizable as a table. Broken chairs are strewn everywhere. The windows are cracked and dirty, barely letting in any of the fading rays of orange light.

Wait. It’s already that dark outside? Patton knew that the sun wasn’t setting when they walked in. From the time they entered to now, not even five minutes have passed. Patton moves back, out of the doorway to the dining room, to look back at the door of the mansion. Which he knows he left open behind him.

It’s shut now. 

Patton frowns. A chill runs through him. He points his flashlight at the door, and then slowly starts to move the beam across the length of the hallway. 

Was it the wind? Or the old hinges?

“Patton!”

Patton nearly jumps out of his skin. He turns around and sees Virgil pointing his flashlight at him. 

“What’s wrong?” Virgil says. 

“Uh,” Patton looks from Virgil, standing on the opposite side of the broken table, to Roman, using his flashlight to look at a torn painting above the fireplace, to Logan, stooping down to pick up something off the ground. “It’s nothing,” Patton says. He walks back into the dining room and joins up with Logan. 

“What’ve you got there?” he asks. 

Logan holds it up to show Patton. “It’s a sword,” he says. “Probably from a suit of armor or something.”

“A sword?” Roman repeats, running over to them. “Let me see!”

Logan holds it out to him. “It’s not as great as you think.”

It’s still pretty impressive, Patton thinks. The binding on the handle is gone, and the blade is tarnished and rusting in places, but it looks really cool. Roman certainly thinks so, as he examines the blade with a huge smile on his face.

“It’s a French style sabre,” he says. “Yeah, it’s not in the best condition, but a bit of work, and it could look amazing! See, this is treasure!” He swings it around experimentally. Patton and Logan both flinch out of the way.

“Careful with that!” Virgil says.

“Sorry,” Roman says. He slides the sword through his belt loop. “Amazing, we’ve found something already.”

“Cool, so can we leave now?” Virgil asks. 

“No!” Roman says. “There’s bound to be other things in other rooms! Besides, this is about having an adventure too! We’ve got to stay a while and see everything there is to see!”

Virgil sighs loudly, but he allows Roman to take him by the hand and drag him towards a door different from the one they came through. Logan chuckles and looks to Patton. 

“It appears we’re moving on.”

Patton takes another glance at the window. Maybe it’s just that the window is really dirty. He knows it’s only been a short time since they entered. He also knows he’s nervous and his mind is probably playing tricks on him, making him panic over little things. He shakes himself and goes to follow Logan through the door.

They enter a narrow hallway, which leads to the kitchen. They look in all the cabinets and on the tables, but there’s nothing but some very rusted cooking ware and dirt. Next is the pantry, which is even more empty than the kitchen. And then there’s a tiny stairwell leading down into a dark…

“Wine cellar?” Logan suggests as they crowd around the top of the stairs and point their flashlights down. They can’t make out anything, since the rickety-looking wooden stairs go down in a spiral.

“One way to find out!” Roman says, and moves to go down the stairs. Virgil grabs him by the shirt and hauls him back. Roman falls onto the floor.

“Are you out of your mind?” Virgil says. “Look at those stairs! Some of them are broken!” 

Are they really, Patton wonders. He looks back down. Sure enough, he can see two or three broken steps. Wow. Terrifying. 

Virgil keeps going, “Clearly, someone’s been down them, whether that was yesterday or twenty years ago, and it didn’t go well! If the four of us--hell if even one of us goes down, we’re going to end up with a broken neck!”

Roman gets up and brushes the dust off his pants. “But Virgil,” he pleads. “There might be something cool down there.”

Virgil moves to stand in the way of the stairs. “There might be something cool in literally every room in this place,” he says. “More likely you’re going to find your treasure in the master bedroom than in the wine cellar, which probably only has old wine bottles from a hundred years ago.”

“Oh!” Roman says. “You’re right.”

“So does that mean we’re going upstairs?” Logan asks. “The bedrooms aren’t going to be on the first floor. This place has four floors, not counting the cellar.”

“What would be on each floor?” Patton asks. 

“The ground floor probably has all the entertaining rooms,” Logan says. “Places you would take company, like the drawing room, sitting room, dining room, and… the library.” He pauses wistfully at that last one. “Bedrooms would be on the next two floors, along with more private rooms for the family’s use. Like… a gallery for art, a nursery, maybe a study.”

“What about the fourth floor?” Virgil asks. 

Logan shrugs. “I would guess an attic. Storage, maybe servant rooms, unless those are in the basement. But it’s probably too dangerous to go all the way up there.”

Virgil throws a pointed glare in Roman’s direction.

“Alright,” Roman says. “I promise I won’t go up to the attic. But after we finish seeing everything there is to see on the ground floor, I want to look for the master bedroom.”

Virgil sighs. “As long as the stairs to the upper floors look safe?”

Rather than answer, Roman bounds out of the kitchen with a hearty “Let’s go!” Virgil follows him with another resigned sigh, and Logan follows them both with an amused smile.

Patton feels much more comfortable as they shut the kitchen door, leaving the creepy stairs behind. He sticks close to Logan as they return to the main hall and walk across to another door. 

This one opens up to a room with some very old furniture scattered around. Logan explains it’s a drawing room, and then explains the difference between a drawing room and a lounge and a sitting room to Patton. Roman and Virgil (probably) ignore him while they shuffle through the drawers of a cabinet on the far side of the room. 

As Logan pauses to examine the artwork that’s fallen off one of the walls, Patton moves his flashlight across the ground. He finds a lot of dirt, broken bits of wood and armchair and… a mirror? 

Patton stops and stoops down to pick it up. It’s a little hand mirror, barely three inches across. The handle is in surprisingly good shape, shiny brass or something fashioned into an elaborate piece. Patton rubs his sleeve against the reflective surface, hoping to find it hasn’t been ruined by time.

Oh, it’s perfect. Even though it’s dark, he can still make out his reflection just fine. He opens his mouth to call Roman over, but stops. Something’s not right. Patton narrows his eyes and peers closer at the mirror.

His reflection isn’t right somehow. Patton reaches towards it to try and clean it again. But the reflection in the mirror--instead of following his movements--raises a finger to his lips. He smirks.

A cold voice whispers in Patton’s ear.

“Shh.”

And then the floor falls out from under Patton’s feet. He opens his mouth to scream, but the sensation stops, replaced by a twisting and cramped feeling, like he’s being pushed into a small space that he can barely fit in. He blinks and tries to move, but finds he can’t.

Then he blinks again and the horrified realization slowly sinks into him. He’s stuck somewhere, unable to look anywhere but out of a round window. A window to the room he just left. Patton looks out to see the reflection of himself, smiling with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

As Patton watches in horror, one of his reflection’s eyes turns yellow. It’s back to Patton’s normal brown a split second later, but it’s enough to make Patton reel in shock. 

“What…” he says, his voice muffled in the small space he’s in. “What’s going on? Logan?” 

His reflection looks away from the mirror, looking in Logan’s direction. “Oh, no, I haven’t found anything,” he says, in a perfect imitation of Patton’s voice. 

“I think the next room is the library,” Patton hears Logan say. “Come on, there’s nothing in here.”

“I’m ready for the next room!” Roman says eagerly.

“Wait,” Patton says, lifting his arms and pushing against the window. The… the mirror. He’s trapped in the mirror. And whatever was in the mirror is outside of it now. And it looks exactly like Patton. “Wait!” he yells, panicking. “Guys! Logan! That’s not me!”

The thing holding the mirror grins, his eye flashing yellow again. He puts the mirror in his pocket, and Patton’s window goes dark. 

“I’m ready too,” the thing says. 

“Let’s go!” Roman says. 

“Logan! Roman! Virgil!” Patton screams, pounding his fists against his window. “That’s not me!”


	2. Chapter 2

Logan didn’t want to admit it earlier, since Patton was noticeably uncomfortable with the whole idea of the Byrd mansion, but he was excited to come here. He’s been interested in the history of the house for a while. When Virgil approached him and asked that he come along with him and Roman, Logan was secretly thrilled.

He feels bad that Patton felt like he had to be here too. However, it seems like Patton has been doing a bit better since they got inside. He’s been a little jumpy, but now, he seems just fine.

That’s good, because Logan is about to get very distracted by the contents of the library. The shelves are still packed, although most of the books have been damaged by time and the elements. There’s a thick layer of books and papers and leaves cluttering the floor and tables. The windows here are cracked, letting in a chilly breeze. Next to him, Virgil shivers and zips up his hoodie. 

“I hope you don’t want to look through every book here,” Roman says, wading through the mess on the floor to a frame that used to hold a globe, but is now empty. 

Logan shines his flashlight around the room. This is really impressive, that these are all still here. He’ll have to bring this up with a historical preservation group, although he’ll leave out the whole detail of him trespassing to discover it. “I don’t,” Logan says. “But I want to look around a bit. Seeing what types of literature the people who lived here read can help us understand what they were like.”

“Which could give hints as to where they’ve put their treasures!” Roman says eagerly.

“Sounds like fun!” Patton says. He scurries across the room to join Roman in his hunt for… whatever the two of them might consider a clue. Logan smiles fondly and starts to walk around to skim the legible titles on the shelves.

“Look at the ceiling,” Virgil mumbles from directly behind him, startling Logan a bit. Logan turns back to see Virgil pointing his flashlight upwards with a frown. Logan looks up.

He’s seen murals of the sky painted on old library ceilings before. It’s an old practice, intended to mimic the calming sensation of being outside. Usually, Logan has seen colorful clouds, blue skies, or full constellations. He’s seen pictures of angels in pictures too. Nothing like this ceiling. It’s got clouds, but they’re dark and ominous, with skeletal demons lurking in them.

“That’s… unsettling,” Logan says. “An odd thing to paint on your library ceiling.”

Virgil lowers his flashlight and glances over at where Patton and Roman are giggling while reading the titles of old books on a shelf. “I don’t know if I should mention it to them,” he says.

Logan considers that. Then he shakes his head. “Probably best not to. Honestly… either the person who commissioned this ceiling had a dark sense of humor, or… maybe someone painted over the original as a prank.”

Virgil tugs on his hoodie sleeves, an uncomfortable expression on his face. “This place is creepy,” he mutters. “Like, all the old and broken things are one thing, but seeing that… I don’t like it.”

Logan nods. “I understand. We can move on to the next floor then, speed things up.”

Virgil’s mouth twitches into a half-smile. “Thanks,” he says. “It’ll be better on Patton too.”

“You noticed too?” Logan’s gaze strays back to Patton, practically bouncing with excitement. It’s kind of strange how quickly his mood changed from barely concealed discomfort to this. 

“Yeah,” Virgil says. “I almost told him to stay home, but you know what he’s like.”

Logan sure does. He shakes his head with a small smile. “Alright, let’s move on. Hey!” he raises his voice to call out to the other two. “I don’t know if we’ll actually find anything in here after all. We can head upstairs now, if you both want to.”

“Yes!” Roman cheers.

“Upstairs?” Patton repeats. “But we haven’t seen all the things on this floor yet. There might be another way to get down to the basement. Didn’t you want to see the basement, Roman?”

“That’s alright, we can check out the basement later tonight,” Roman says, clapping a hand against Patton’s back. “Our mission right now is the find the master bedroom!” 

“As long as the floorboards are safe,” Virgil says. 

Together, they leave the library and return to the main hall to take the stairs up. As they do, Logan points his flashlight up at the stairs, curious. No murals on the high ceiling, but the architecture is truly impressive. Even after all this time, the details are still visible in places. Logan can only imagine how beautiful it looked when it was being taken care of properly. 

Meanwhile, as they reach the second floor, Logan notes how Patton does seem to be more comfortable here. Where before he was clinging to Logan’s side, he’s now bounding ahead with Roman. It’s nice to see him like this. Logan just hopes he doesn’t accidentally step on a weak floorboard or something. 

He tests the floor as they reach the landing. 

“It feels safe,” he comments. 

Virgil presses hard on the floor, frowning when they creak noisily. “Just watch where you’re walking. Roman, did you hear me?”

“Yes, yes, I’ll be careful,” Roman says, stopping to turn back and kiss Virgil on the nose. Virgil flails for a few seconds, prompting Roman to pull him closer, grab him by the cheeks, and kiss his nose again. Logan chuckles at the display. They’re adorable. He looks over to see if Patton noticed.

Patton is watching Roman and Virgil with an oddly distant face. A moment later, he catches Logan looking and his face splits into a cheerful smile. 

“Alright, that’s enough!” Virgil sputters, finally detaching himself from Roman and storming off in the direction of the closest door. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

“That’s not the right attitude!” Roman says. He hurries to catch up with Virgil and grabs his hand, trying to kiss him again. Virgil leans away at the last second, so it lands on his ear instead of his cheek.

Logan scoffs, shaking his head. “Patton?” he says, waiting for his own boyfriend to get moving. 

“Coming!” Patton says. He takes Logan’s hand and cuddles up to his side. “This is fun!”

“You sure?” Logan says as they head for the room that Roman and Virgil just entered. “You don’t have to pretend, it’s okay to be scared.”

“I’m not scared,” Patton says. “I’ve got you!”

Oh. Logan’s caught off guard at that. His heart skips a beat and Patton giggles and pokes his face. 

“Come on, they’re getting ahead of us,” Patton says. 

Still flustered by Patton’s flirting, Logan struggles to focus on looking at the contents of the room they’ve just entered. It’s definitely a bedroom, as evidenced by the empty bed frame and chest of drawers lying broken on the ground. There’s also a mirror in broken shards in the corner that reflects Logan’s flashlight all over the room.

“Oh, careful,” Patton says, pulling Logan in the opposite direction. “Those are bad luck, broken mirrors.”

“Isn’t that only when you break them?” Roman says, stepping over the pieces of mirror to look at the drawers on the floor. 

“I don’t know,” Virgil says. “It’s just a superstition, isn’t it? Probably from back when mirrors were expensive. Logan, do you know?”

“No,” Logan says. He points his flashlight around at the walls. The wallpaper is torn and it looks like the wall might be molding in places. “But it doesn’t look like we should stay in here. Look, there’s mold.”

At that, Virgil grabs Roman’s hand and practically drags him out of the room. Logan and Patton leave first, and Patton shuts the door firmly behind them. 

“Hey, I wasn’t done in there!” Roman protests.

“You don’t want to get mold spores in your lungs,” Virgil says in a scolding tone. “If we see any mold--even if it’s in the master bedroom--we’re not going in there. I’m serious about this.”

Roman sighs, long and drawn out. “Ugh. Fine. I guess we’re moving on to the next room, then.”

“It’s alright,” Patton says. “There’s still plenty more to see!”

“Hopefully,” Roman says. He turns the knob of the next door. It’s another bedroom, slightly larger than the last one, but emptier. Apart from the bed frame, there’s nothing but a small door in the far wall, probably leading to a closet.

They walk over to look inside. A moth flies out as Roman opens the door, causing him to cry out in alarm and try to grab the sword from his side. 

Patton laughs. “It’s just a moth,” he says, following its flight with his flashlight. Logan and Virgil both point their flashlights into the closet. There’s a large number of cobwebs covering small piles of old clothing on the floor. Virgil steps inside carefully and reaches down to poke at one of the piles.

A large black spider suddenly emerges from the clothing, scuttling across the floor. Roman shrieks and leaps back, colliding with Logan. Both of them tumble to the floor just outside the closet. Logan can’t see anything but Roman’s hair for a moment. Roman eventually gets to his feet and reaches down to help Logan up.

“Sorry,” Roman says.

Patton is chuckling while watching them. “That was funny,” he says.

“Say that when you’re the one two feet away from a spider,” Roman says. 

“You’re alright?” Logan says, looking at Patton. 

Patton blinks. “Uh, yeah? I wasn’t even in the closet when it popped out.”

That’s kind of weird. Logan opens his mouth to comment on it, but Roman interrupts his thoughts.

“Well, seeing as how this room is infested with dangerous beasts, I think we should continue on our search for the master bedroom!” 

“Yeah!” Patton says.

Roman exits the room, Patton close behind him. Logan hesitates in the room and catches Virgil looking after them with a pondering expression.

“Patton’s acting weird,” Virgil says as soon as Roman and Patton are out of the room. Then he grimaces. “Sorry, I just… It’s--he was--earlier he was, you know, acting like I kind of expected he would. But now…”

Logan shrugs. “Sometimes he does this, you know. Pretends to be fine. But yeah, I get what you’re saying. Seeing a spider normally would…”

“Are you two coming?” Patton says, poking his head and his flashlight back into the room. Logan jumps and squeezes his eyes shut as the light hits his eyes. “Sorry!” Patton says, pointing it back downwards. 

“Yeah, we’re coming,” Virgil says. “Roman! You’d better still be watching the floor!” 

“I am!”

The next door opens to a very small storage room. There’s not enough space for them all to enter, so they crowd around the door as Roman opens the cabinets and drawers. There are some very old linens and an empty rusted tin, but nothing else. Roman picks up the tin. Virgil takes it out of his hands and puts it back.

“Hey, I want that,” Roman says.

“Not unless you want tetanus,” Virgil shoots back. He smacks Roman’s hand when he tries to reach for it again.

“I’m not going to get tetanus from a tin. Ow! Stop that!” 

“Leave it alone!”

Logan clears his throat. “There’s three more doors I can see on this floor,” he says. “And one of them is on the west side.” 

“What’s the significance of that?” Roman asks.

“It was a common practice to put the master suite on the west side, so they could have a better view of the sunset,” Logan says.

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Roman says, turning around with a bright smile on his face. “Come on, let’s go over there!” He points his flashlight across the open space looking down into the hall below. “Which one is it?”

Logan belatedly realizes that the railing has been broken in places. A wave of vertigo sweeps through him as he imagines falling the fifteen or so feet to the ground. Then he briefly wonders what kind of force could break off the railing. It looks like a solid, hard wood. Even if it’s been a hundred years…

“That one, right?” Patton says, pointing his flashlight at the door on the west side of the mansion. “It looks like it’s a big room, too! Come on, let’s go!”

Roman and Patton rush off together. 

“Slow down!” Virgil yells, following at a more reasonable pace. 

Logan lingers for a moment, looking at the railing. He knows it has been close to a hundred years since the mansion was occupied. Plenty of people, and even animals, could have come through since then. It’s probably nothing to worry about.


	3. Chapter 3

Something’s up with Patton. Virgil has no idea what’s going on, but he’s acting weird. All of a sudden he’s eager to explore? And he wasn’t bothered by the spider? Last week, Patton called Virgil at half past midnight to beg him to drive across town to get rid of the spider in his bathtub. Just earlier, Virgil was surprised that Patton didn’t insist that they leave the mansion at once. 

He follows closely behind Roman and Patton, eyes narrowed in suspicion. As they approach the door of the master suite, the floorboards creak ominously and Virgil hurries forward to grab Roman protectively.

“Careful,” he says.

“Oh, cut it out, we’re fine!” Patton says, almost sounding irritated.

Cut it out? What the hell? Virgil opens his mouth to argue, but Patton isn’t paying him any attention.

Patton opens the door of the master suite and shines his flashlight inside. Standing just behind him, Virgil sees that the flashlight beam gets reflected back by an oval shaped mirror on the wall. Patton then points his flashlight down at the ground and walks inside, disappearing into the shadows.

“Oh, look there’s a lot of stuff in here!” Patton says.

“Really?” Roman says, hurrying in after him. 

Virgil raises his flashlight to shine at the mirror. He lowers the light, just enough that he can see himself. Logan appears behind him.

“What’s wrong?”

Virgil shakes his head and walks inside. He walks over to where Patton is, even though Roman has gone to the opposite side of the suite. Roman… alright, he’s being a bit of an idiot, but he’ll be fine on his own. And it looks like Logan is with him now. Virgil can relax, at least where his boyfriend’s safety is concerned. 

He can’t relax around Patton, however. He’s just acting too… suspicious. Virgil felt bad pointing it out to Logan earlier. He doesn’t want to come out with the full accusation that… what? That he thinks this house has gotten to Patton in some way? There are rumors the Byrd Mansion is haunted. They’re never clear on what exactly haunts it. Some say ghosts of the former residents, some say it was built on former burial ground and those spirits haunt it, and some even suggest demons. Virgil doesn’t like any of those rumors. It’s kind of hard to fight a ghost.

“Check that room on the other side of that door,” Patton calls, pointing his flashlight across the large room and illuminating a door in the middle of the wall.

Roman and Logan both head for the door. Virgil, meanwhile, hovers right next to Patton. 

“Hey, Patton,” he says, reaching forward and grabbing Patton’s elbow. 

Patton twitches at the contact. “Yeah?”

He feels solid. Probably not a ghost. But what then? Something possessing Patton? Maybe something hypnotized him?

“Uh,” Virgil says, realizing that Patton expects him to say something. He looks around. “Are we going to follow after them? It’s not a good idea to split up, you know. Someone might fall, or there could be a poisonous spider. Like a brown recluse.”

And once again, even after mentioning a deadly spider, Patton seems completely unconcerned. “Alright, I guess.” He drops whatever he’s holding and walks quickly across the room, keeping his flashlight beam trained on the floor in front of him. Virgil has no idea why he’s moving so fast. He sweeps his flashlight from side to side as he crosses the room.

Wait, what?

Virgil freezes and tries to figure out what he just saw. He stands in the middle of the room, moving his flashlight beam around where he thinks he saw… whatever that big shadowy thing was. But it’s not showing up again. It’s...weird. For a moment he… thought he saw--

Oh, it’s just the mirror. Virgil shines his light into the mirror, then looks where the reflection would have been.

Nothing.

This place is seriously creeping him out. 

Virgil follows Patton into the room, which is another suite, slightly smaller than the first one. But this one still has a few decorations that have been ruined by time. The wallpaper that remains is beautiful, and there’s a small shattered chandelier on the floor--the first one they’ve seen in this whole place.

“Wait, is this the master suite?” Roman says, looking around with his flashlight.

“This would have been the suite for the lady of the house,” Logan explains. “In that time, there were separate rooms for the master of the house and his wife. Similar to many households now, although back then it was considered proper that they not sleep in the same room unless… Well, you know.”

Patton giggles.

“They’re still connected to each other though,” Roman says. 

“Well, yes,” Logan says. “But even when they were sleeping in the same room, they’d need their own spaces for dressing rooms and the like. Personal effects.”

“Treasures,” Roman says excitedly.

Virgil moves his flashlight around and finds a bedside table. He heads over to it, and opens the top drawer, fully expecting it to just be full of dust. It is full of dust, but there are also crumbling papers in there, and beneath those, a box.

“Hey, Roman,” Virgil says. “I’ve found something.”

“Oh, what?” Roman says, hurrying over to him.

Virgil turns the box over in his hands and it rattles. There’s a keyhole on one side of it. Cool. 

“Virgil! This is amazing!” Roman says. Virgil hands the box over to him and looks through every inch of the drawer for a key. Nothing. 

“I don’t know how we’re going to open it,” he says.

“That’s probably a jewelry box,” Logan suggests. “Definitely treasure,” he adds with a smile. “Congratulations, Virgil.”

Roman looks at Virgil with a big hopeful smile and Virgil just rolls his eyes and opens his backpack. Whatever, he’s willing to carry Roman’s treasure if it makes him happy. 

They also find some old clothes which are in better condition than the ones they found earlier, but none of them want to go up and touch them. There’s also a lot of papers and a book on the bed, but the pages have all been torn to shreds. Virgil wants to look at it, but before he can get close, Patton declares that they’ve probably found all that there is to find in here.

“It’s a shame,” Roman sighs. “I was hoping there’d be more.”

“You found a jewelry box,” Patton points out. “And there’s more bedrooms upstairs with plenty more to find. Probably. Right, Logan?”

“Well, considering how little we’ve found already, I’m not so sure,” Logan says. 

Virgil speaks up. “This has been abandoned for quite a while, and other people could have come and--”

“Oh, don’t be such a downer, Virgil!” Patton says. “We won’t know until we try, right, Roman?”

The word ‘downer’ stings. Virgil’s fists clench. He’s been called that before, but never by Patton. By Roman, in a lighthearted and fond teasing way. By plenty of assholes whose words hurt but didn’t really matter to Virgil. But Patton would never call him a downer. Patton’s called him a sad kitten, a rain cloud full of hidden rainbows, and a sparkly diamond who needs more sleep to sparkle brighter. 

Patton’s not an asshole, not even on accident. Virgil knows Patton. He’s known Patton for years.

Whatever that is, it’s not Patton.

But the Evil Thing That’s Impersonating Patton suddenly won’t let go of Logan and Roman. He’s almost glued to their sides as he leads them out of the master suite and up to the next floor. Virgil takes a moment to wince at the creakier floorboards on the landing, but he can’t mention them because the other three are moving too fast. They enter a large hall-like room with several doors on either side of it.

“This would have been for children, I’m guessing,” Logan says, detaching himself from Patton. “A sort of expanded nursery.”

“Oh, look! Toys!” Roman exclaims, also pulling away from Patton to go running across the floor.

The Evil Patton Impersonator looks over his shoulder at Virgil. He smiles, but not with any smile Virgil is used to. Virgil narrows his eyes again. He’s done with this. 

“Patton--” he says.

“Hey, Virgil, come and check this room out!” Evil Patton Impersonator says, grabbing Virgil roughly by the arm and pulling him away with a force much greater than anything Virgil’s ever felt from Patton. Before Virgil knows it, he’s in a very small room and the impersonator is closing the door behind him.

“You’re not Patton,” Virgil says.

“No, I’m not,” the Evil Thing That’s Impersonating Patton says. “You figured it out fast, I noticed.”

Virgil opens his mouth to yell for Roman and Logan--stupid, he should have yelled when the impersonator pulled him away--but all of a sudden, heavy dark tendrils have wrapped around his body, covering his mouth and pulling him down to the floor. He drops his flashlight and it’s swallowed up by the shadows. Virgil falls to his knees, trying to thrash and break free, but the darkness is tight. It weighs down on him like a ton of bricks. He pulls and twists, but the more he struggles, the less he’s able to move. Finally, he stops as the tight shadowy bonds constrict around his chest and he goes lightheaded.

All the while, the evil thing with Patton’s face and voice just watches with a horribly gleeful smile.

“Are you done?”

_Fuck you,_ Virgil thinks. If this bastard thinks he can get away with whatever he’s trying to pull, he’s not going to get very far. He’s already shitty as pretending to be Patton--Virgil knows that Logan at least is suspicious. Roman’s not that much of an idiot either. And he’s definitely going to notice if this thing tries to copy Virgil.

The evil thing strides confidently up to Virgil. He reaches into his pocket. 

“I’ll get back to you later,” he says. “Right after I lead your other friends down into the basement. It’s been a long time since I last fed… but two will be enough for now.”

That sounds like demon talk. Virgil strains in his bonds again, but there’s nothing he can do to even make a noise. The thing chuckles and takes something out of his pocket.

“Were you wondering where your sweet little friend was?” he asks. He holds something out in front of Virgil. A little hand mirror.

Virgil’s eyes widen in horror. Patton--the _real_ Patton--is inside the mirror, hands pressed against the inner surface. His mouth is moving, but there’s no sound. He pounds his fists against the inner surface of the mirror, and slumps sadly when he sees Virgil. 

This… _FUCKER_. Virgil pulls at his bonds with a new force, actually managing to rip a few of them. The evil thing looks very surprised, but he quickly recovers and wraps Virgil tight with more tendrils of shadows. Virgil keeps thrashing, even when the evil thing reaches out to grab a handful of Virgil’s hair.

_Don’t you dare fucking touch me, you bastard._

“Shh,” he says. “Just stay put. I’ll be back soon. Maybe I’ll even let you talk with Patton before I consume you both.”

He opens the door and shuts it behind him. Darkness swirls over the door, replacing it with a blank wall. Virgil panics for a few seconds--fuck, he’s trapped, there’s no way out, he’s going to die in here--before he kicks himself back into the more important things. 

Okay. Okay, at least he knows where the real Patton is. How he’s going to get Patton out of the mirror is a problem, but they’ll figure it out. Most likely, they’ll have to threaten the demon-whatever-it-is-bastard to let him go. How they’ll do _that_ is another problem. 

It’s not hopeless. Roman and Logan are smart. They’re resourceful. They’ll figure this out, and they’ll… probably try to confront the thing. 

Virgil just hopes they don’t go down to the basement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh oh


	4. Chapter 4

“Virgil! Patton!” Roman yells, opening door after door looking for them. Logan is right beside him the whole time, having already told Roman it’d be a bad idea to split up. This is scary; he and Logan were just looking at an old dollhouse when Logan had looked up and realized Virgil and Patton were nowhere to be seen. They had gone around the entire nursery and opened every door they could find, but Patton and Virgil weren't in any of the rooms.

How did they disappear so quickly? And without him and Logan noticing?

So now Roman and Logan were opening all the other doors on the third floor, calling out to their missing boyfriends. 

“Patton!” Logan yells. “Where are you?”

“Virgil!”

After checking another empty closet, Patton suddenly appears from around a corner. His flashlight is off for some reason. “Oh!” he says. “Hi guys! Sorry, I must have wandered off!”

“Patton!” Roman exclaims, hurrying over with Logan. “Thank heavens you’re okay! Have you seen Virgil?”

“Virgil? Uh, I don’t think so?” Patton looks around. “He might have gotten lost, I guess. Maybe we’ll run into him soon.”

“This isn’t like him,” Logan says. “He wouldn’t have just walked away from us.”

Patton scowls, just for a second, but long enough for Roman to notice. Okay, this has gone on long enough. 

“What’s wrong with you, Patton?” he asks.

“Roman--?” Logan says, confused.

“You’ve been acting so… aloof since we came upstairs,” he continues. “It’s not like you. And what was that just now? You don’t care that Virgil is missing?”

“Of course I care that he’s missing!” Patton says hotly. “But you know, we’re not going to find him just by standing around talking! If he can’t hear us, he must be on another floor! We should keep moving!”

“You’re not acting like yourself,” Logan says, his voice quiet but firm. “Patton… what’s going on?”

Patton flusters. “Look, this place is… it’s messing with me, okay? It’s big and dark and scary. I’ve just… been trying to act brave.”

No. Roman knows what Patton is like when he’s acting brave. It’s nothing like this. This… is arrogant and angry and uncaring of his friends’ safety. 

“You disappeared at the same time Virgil did,” Roman says. He can’t quite believe where he’s going with this, but… Patton’s strange behavior? Virgil growing noticeably more anxious just before going missing? The way that this mansion just gives him the creeps, and the fact that none of the windows offer a clear view outside?

Yeah, he’s been noticing the windows. It feels like this place is trying to keep them from looking outside. 

“Did you…” Roman starts, but then he stops. Is he really going to say this? He looks at Patton’s face, full of barely concealed anger. Yes, he is. Roman takes a deep breath. “You saw what happened to him, didn’t you?”

“Are you… accusing me of having something to do with Virgil’s disappearance?” Patton says incredulously. “I can’t believe this!”

“You’re not acting like the Patton I know!” Roman said, his voice raising in volume.

“I am Patton!” Patton yells back. “You’re just paranoid because your overprotective boyfriend isn’t around to--”

“Stop it.” Logan says. Patton stops and looks imploringly at Logan.

“Logan…” Patton says. “It’s--”

“You’re not Patton,” Logan says, his voice thick with barely restrained emotion. “Who the hell are you? And what did you do to my boyfriend?”

Patton’s pleading expression immediately shifts to disdain. “Guess I picked the wrong one to play pretend, hm?”

Even with his suspicions, a cold feeling spreads through Roman. “Who are you?” he breathes.

Not-Patton smiles cruelly at him. “I don’t think you’re prepared to hear that answer.” And, before Roman or Logan can say anything else, he turns and runs. Shocked, it takes a second for Roman to start chasing after him. Not-Patton runs a zig-zag pattern through the halls, and then comes to a twisting service stairwell. He starts running downstairs.

“Where is Patton!” Roman yells as he follows as best as he can. His flashlight beam is going all over the place as he runs. “Where’s Virgil, you monster!”

“You’ll never find them!” Not-Patton laughs. “You’ll never leave this house!”

As they reach the second floor, Not-Patton takes off down the hallways again. Roman tries his best to pick up speed, but as he rounds a corner, he finds himself with an empty dead end hallway.

“What?” Roman says. Logan runs into his back.

“Why did you stop?” he says.

Roman moves his flashlight frantically around the hallway, and then back the way they came. It bears no resemblance to how it was before. Now, it’s a long isolated hallway, with no corners, no windows, and only one door at the end. 

“How…” Roman pants. “What’s going on?”

“I think that we really shouldn’t split up now,” Logan says, panting as well. 

Roman looks back at the dead end side of the hallway. For a split second, as his flashlight passes over the far end, the light moves across a window or a mirror, with a figure behind it. But when Roman moves his flashlight again to try and catch it again, there’s nothing. 

“I agree,” Roman says. He looks back at the other end, with the door that seems to have moved several feet closer. 

“Looks like there’s only one way to go,” Logan says. 

Roman swallows. He grips his flashlight tightly and starts walking forward, towards that imposing door. He reaches for the handle and twists it open. It opens to a very long, very narrow stairwell that only goes down. Far below, there’s a faint yellow glow. 

“I don’t like this,” Logan says, standing beside him in the doorway. 

“Too bad,” comes Patton’s voice from directly behind them.

Roman jumps and just manages to turn his head to see Patton--no, Not-Patton--mere inches behind him and Logan. Not-Patton shoves their backs roughly, pushing them both into the stairwell. He slams the door shut behind them as they fall down the stairs.

Roman manages to stop himself after only falling a few yards. Logan comes to a stop too, blocked by Roman. Roman takes a second to breathe and assess the bruises he’s gotten. Everything feels like it still works. He turns his flashlight towards Logan, who’s coughing and adjusting his glasses.

“Are you alright?” he asks.

“I… I think so,” Logan groans. “But I dropped my flashlight when he pushed me.”

So now the two of them have to rely on one flashlight. Roman grits his teeth, then passes the flashlight over. “You take that.”

“What about you?”

Roman pulls the sword they found earlier from out of his belt loop. “I’ll be fine,” he says. As soon as they find that guy again, Roman is fighting him with the sword until he gives up Patton and Virgil.

They pull themselves to their feet again. Logan points the flashlight back the way they came. The door is gone, replaced by a solid wall. 

“Only one way to go, I guess,” he says solemnly. He points the flashlight down, towards the distant end of the stairs. 

The two of them start walking. As they move, the nervousness and dread that Roman’s feeling is gradually replaced by determination. They’re going to get out of here. He and Logan are going to find Virgil and Patton, and together, they’re all going to get out of here. 

The yellow glow becomes slightly brighter as they descend more. Eventually, they reach the bottom, where another door separates them from whatever is casting the light. It’s very cold down here. The walls on either side of the door are stone, and they look like they were carved out of the ground itself.

“This is probably the basement,” Logan says. 

Roman opens the door. It feels almost like a cave. The low ceiling is the same rough carved stone as the walls and floor. Wooden barrels and shelves full of dusty wine bottles stretch down the length of the room. The yellow glow is coming from a spot at the other end. 

Silently, Roman and Logan continue walking, in between the barrels and the wine racks. 

“Patton?” Logan calls out, his voice echoing in the cavern. “Virgil?”

To Roman’s great surprise, there comes an answer. 

“Logan?” The voice is hoarse, and sounds like it’s been crying. It’s Patton’s voice.

“Patton!” Logan says, breaking into a run. Roman keeps pace, his heartbeat picking up. “Patton, where are you!”

“Logan!” Patton calls again. “Logan, I’m stuck!” 

Roman and Logan make it to the end of the room, where there’s a pit carved into the ground. It’s at least six feet deep, and it looks damp and cold. Patton is sitting at the bottom of it, shivering. 

“I’m so glad to see you,” Patton says, nearly on the verge of tears. “That thing pushed me down here. I think my ankle’s broken. I don’t know if I can get up by myself. Logan, can--can you come down and help me out?” 

Roman takes a step forward to jump down into the pit himself, but Logan reaches out to stop him. “Patton,” Logan says calmly. “Is that really you? Or are you… that thing from upstairs?”

“What?” Patton says. “I’m--I’m me. I’m your boyfriend, Logan.”

“Tell me something that Patton would know,” Logan says.

The yellow light abruptly vanishes. In the light from the flashlight, the pit is suddenly empty.

“Seems like you’re smarter than I took you for,” Patton’s voice hisses behind them. Roman whirls around, but he can’t see a thing without the flashlight. Something pushes at him, pushing him in the direction of the pit, and he falls roughly against the ground. 

“You thought we wouldn’t recognize our own friends?” Roman yells, swinging wildly through the darkness with the sword. Logan is pointing the flashlight in every direction, but the beam of light doesn’t catch the thing taking Patton’s appearance.

“Well, you didn’t notice for quite some time,” Not-Patton chuckles. “And hey, you walked straight into a demon-infested house. Gotta be really stupid to do that, huh, Roman?”

Roman leaps to his feet and charges through the darkness, yelling. He swings the sword where he thinks the thing might be, but once again it passes through empty air. Roman feels something grab at his ankle and yank him off his feet. He falls, but instead of hitting the floor immediately, he stumbles against one of the wooden barrels. On top of the pains from falling down the stairs earlier , the fall leaves Roman stunned and disorientated.

“Hey!” Logan’s voice yells. 

There’s the sound of shattering glass behind Roman. Roman whips his head around, worried that Logan has run into the racks on the walls. In the light from Logan’s flashlight, he sees Logan holding a wine bottle in one hand. The other hand is holding the flashlight, which is trained on Not-Patton.

Not-Patton slowly starts walking towards Logan. “Are you trying to be a hero, Logan? Trying to make up for not recognizing your own boyfriend?”

“Shut up!” Logan yells, throwing the wine bottle. 

Not Patton catches it with a snakelike tendril of darkness and hurls it aside. It breaks noisily against the stone floor. 

“Patton’s heard what’s been happening the whole time,” Not-Patton continues, chuckling cruelly. “Do you want to hear him?”

And suddenly Patton’s voice is echoing through the cavern, sounding very strained, but also muffled as if he’s yelling from behind a window. “Logan! Roman! Get out of there! He’s going to--”

“Oops,” Not-Patton says, cutting off the real Patton’s voice. “That’s all you get.”

“LET HIM GO!” Logan screams, charging at Not-Patton.

A tendril of darkness grabs Logan and throws him against a rack of wine bottles. They fall and break around him, and Roman can’t see if he’s okay because the flashlight beam is still pointed in Not-Patton’s direction. 

Roman surges to his feet and, in one motion, brings the sword in an arc towards Not-Patton. The sword hits the thing’s arm and suddenly, he shatters as if he was made of glass. Roman blinks in shock, as the force of the swing puts him off balance.

He catches his balance again, right as Patton collapses to the floor, emerging from the shower of broken Not-Patton.

Roman stares at him in surprise. This Patton… this Patton is shaking slightly and lying on the floor. The flashlight beam moves, and Roman looks up to see Logan picking himself up off the floor.

“Patton?” Logan says in a whisper.

“Logan,” Patton says. His voice is wrecked, just like it sounded a moment ago. “Is… is he gone?”

Logan casts the flashlight beam around in a circle. There’s no sight of Not-Patton. Just a lot of broken glass, the barrels and racks of bottles, and the stone ceiling and walls. Roman is still full of adrenaline, and his stomach feels sick. This… this can’t be it. It can’t have been that easy.

Suddenly a cloud of shadows swirls in front of Roman. It twists and billows, and attempts to take on Virgil’s appearance. Seeing the thing try to look like Roman’s boyfriend makes the sick feeling in his stomach intensify. The thing screams angrily in Roman’s face, and then flies away.

“We--we can’t let it get away!” Roman says, running after the smoke cloud.

“What?” Logan says, but from the sounds Roman’s hearing, he and Patton are following too.

“It’s still got Virgil!” Roman yells. He pauses in the midst of the darkness, waiting for the light from the flashlight. 

Logan points the flashlight in every direction but the one they came from, trying to spot something besides more wine cellar. 

“There!” Patton says hoarsely, pointing. 

A short distance away, tucked between two wine racks, is a rickety looking wooden staircase. Roman and Logan and Patton all run for it, and make their way up. They emerge into the pantry they found earlier. From the pantry, they head into the kitchen.

Roman pauses for a second and looks around in surprise. There’s a window in the kitchen that wasn’t there before. And it’s almost clear. He can see outside, and it’s just dark meadow, but he can _see_ it. 

“It’s… I think it’s weakened,” he says. “We should be able to escape, once we find Virgil.”

Logan and Patton nod. Together, they run out of the kitchen and back into the main entrance hall. What they find there makes Roman’s heart lift.

Virgil is racing down the stairs from the second floor, holding a flashlight in front of him and loudly cursing out the house. He’s okay. He’s alive.

“Virgil!” Roman yells. 

Virgil stops, and in that moment, a wave of darkness grabs him and drags him down the stairs.

“NO!” Roman yells, charging for the evil thing that’s trying to take Virgil from him again. He stabs at the swirling shadows with the sword, but it does absolutely nothing. 

Virgil is struggling in the shadowy grip, yelling obscenities at it. Patton and Logan appear on either side of Roman and each grab one of Virgil’s arms. Roman grabs Virgil around the waist, and while the darkness is cold and terrible to the touch, it dissipates like smoke. They pull Virgil out of the shadowy grip and stumble towards the direction of the front door.

“Let’s get out of here!” Roman yells.

“Fuck this place!” Virgil growls.

“Wait!” Logan says, grabbing Roman’s shoulder and pulling him to a stop. 

Between them and the door, the smoke billows into a tall column. 

“You think you’ve defeated me?” the smoke yells, echoing throughout the entrance hall and rattling the ground. “You think you can escape?”

“Yes!” Patton yells, hurling something at the column. 

The smoke screams as whatever Patton threw hits it. Like a vacuum, the smoke is sucked into the object in seconds, and then it clatters to the ground. 

Virgil’s flashlight slowly lowers to see what it was. 

A small hand mirror.

In front of them, the door to the mansion opens.

Roman, Logan, Virgil, and Patton all run out of the mansion, into the night. The sky is full of stars above them, and the air feels clean and crisp. They keep running, towards Virgil’s car, which they had left a short distance away from the house. 

They all get into the car as fast as they can, and Virgil is throwing the car into Drive and speeding away from the place as soon as all the doors are shut. Roman doesn’t even dare to start relaxing the tension in his body until long after the mansion is out of their rearview mirror.

“We’re never doing anything like that again,” he finally says, breaking the silence. 

“Agreed,” Logan says, cradled around Patton in the backseat.

Patton takes a shaky breath. “I’m glad you all are okay.”

“Me too,” Virgil says.

Later that night, when they stop at Patton’s house with the agreement that they’re going to be staying together for the night, Roman leaves the sword and Virgil’s backpack in the car. They aren’t going to touch those until much later, when they’ve recovered from this experience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If they did open the backpack, and then opened the jewelry box, they might notice the tiny circular mirror set inside it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and it's done!!! yay!!! I loved writing this fic :D


End file.
